Archive for the ‘Art’ Category

HunterXHunter, an anime series that ended in 2004 (Well that’s what I got from Wikipedia); currently has a new anime with new animation, music, and other bells and whistles. And while watching the new series, I couldn’t help but notice that they toned down the violence. Brutal death scenes; that I am now being re-introduced to by reading the manga, is now being censored with a mass reduction of blood being shown. It’s not blatantly censored, they cleverly hide the gore and death scenes in a way that if you never seen the show before, you wouldn’t notice. But it will be obvious if you’re like me and looking forward to those scenes.

At first I thought this was being done to speed the anime along so they can get to the good parts. Kinda like what happened in the beginning of Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood (Another good show. If you haven’t already, get on that!). And once they reach a good point of the show, a switch is flipped, and all the gore in it’s entirety will start to be shown. But so far, that does not look to be the case. On a past episode, a character reveals a trait about himself by… Let’s just say he pulls a Kano. A scene that I was looking forward to seeing, but what was actually shown left me with a “WTF!” As you can tell, I’m trying really hard not to be spoilery, because this is a really good show and I don’t won’t to ruin it for you. But for me, that last scene was my breaking point, and I’m currently only reading the managa of the series.

Right now, can’t really reccommend the new series of HunterXHunter, I suggest watching the older series that came out before 2004, or just reading the manga. But who knows, there maybe is a switch planned for the new series, that they don’t plan on flipping until way later in the show. But I plan on relying on The Unofficial Hunter x Hunter Podcast for letting me know when and if that ever happens, and until then, I will be just reading the manga. And if you are interested in HunterXHunter or just a big fan or the show, I also reccommend you listening to their podcast.

For those who don’t already know, drawing use to be a big hobby of mine. When I wasn’t sketching characters from Dragon Ball Z, I was drawing something off the top of my mind. But that has been years ago. For some reason, I just sorta fell out of drawing. I doodle every now and again, with stick figures and the like, but I never really committed myself to projects like I use to do. As of late, I have been meaning to take back up the hobby. Over the years, I have got some experience with programs like Photoshop, Illustrator, and PaintShop Pro, and I wanted to use them to tweak my future drawings. But I was a blank, I didn’t know where to start or what to draw. And whenever I had the sudden hit of inspiration, I usually got an equal hit of procrastination. It wasn’t until one day when I was listening to one of my favorite podcast, Just A Gintama Podcast, when they mentioned they were having a logo contest. And I think one of the host said, “if you are an artist and looking for a chance to show off your skills, then we want you to design our logo.” After hearing that. I was like “You talking to me? Are you talking to me? I don’t see anyone else here, so you must be talking to me. Oh yeah, I’ll design your logo.” I took it to myself as a challenge to myself to get off my ass, and get back to drawing. Fast forward a few weeks of drawing and designing, and this is what I made:

My entry, along with many others were winners of the logo contest, and were included as logo’s for various episodes of the podcast. The most recent episode of the podcast was the one that featured my logo, and I also guest hosted with a few other fans of the show. I had a great time, and would gladly join again if they ever needed me. But the main reason for this post is because I just wanted to thank the hosts of Just A Gintama Podcast, for in a way helping me out of that artist funk I was in.

Currently, I am back to drawing… Kinda. I’m taking small steps. I recently made an account on Deviant Art, and I plan to put all future work on there. I have also created a direct link to my Deviant Art page at the top of this website. I also plan to put up a few of my old works there. Some things I drew while I was in highschool, and some while I was in college. I welcome anybody to look around there, and feel free to leave a comment or two.